15 SICK Behind The Scenes Facts From The Fast And Furious Franchise

It may seem like it has been a while since you have heard anything about The Fast and The Furious, but that is about to change. Don’t look now, but the next version of TheFast and The Furious franchise is coming out less than six months from now. Every single one of the movies so far has done its best to top the last one, and The Fast and The Furious8 looks like it is up to the same task. Of course, The Fast and The Furious is all about death defying action, and some really cool and fast cars. When you throw some of the biggest stars in film into the mix on top of it you have a winning combination. Even with the tragic death of Paul Walker making international headlines, and all of the press the movies have received over the years, there are still some things you don’t know and some images that you have not seen. It’s not all that surprising, actually. With 7 movies already released there’s bound to be some moments from the franchise that you missed.

Maybe this is the first time you have checked out anything about these movies, or possibly you are a die hard fan and have been from the beginning. Either way we have come up with 15 images of things going on behind the scenes that you probably did not know. Here are 15 awesome behind the scenes images from The Fast and the Furious franchise. You know they will be good because The Fast and the Furious is always a wild ride.

15.The Cast Improvises A Lot

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While in most movies improvising is not the norm, when it comes to The Fast and The Furious this has been going on since the very first movie. Paul Walker and Matt Schulze spent a lot of time working on the fight scene outside the grocery store, but when it was being filmed what they were doing just was not working, so they ended up improvising the scene. This has continued on throughout all the different movies; the actors have always been encouraged to improvise some of their lines to keep the movies seeming fresh, and not stale. Does it work? Well, you can be the judge, but considering these are some of the most profitable movies of all time, we will have to say that they are doing okay.

14.Justin Lin Caused The Shift Away From CGI

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CGI, which of course is Computer Generated Imagery, has been what many Hollywood directors use for action movies these days. For awhile the franchise was going toward CGI as a way to make the excitement happen on the big screen. When Justin Lin took over as director all of that stopped. In The Fast and The Furious 5 Lin decided to go back to the old school way of making things happen and away from CGI. So rest assured when you see any amazing explosions and death-defying stunts involving cars, helicopters, or anything else that goes fast and has a big engine, then it is happening for real. Whatever Lin is doing it is working, as the movies just continue to get bigger and make more money at the same time.

13.Walker Picked His Own Cars

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Of course, most of us know how into cars Paul Walker was, if we did not know it from his role in the movies, we sadly learned about it when he died. Still though, I don’t know how many know quite how into cars he really was. He was a serious street-racing fan and was allowed to pick all of his own cars for the movies. That is right, every single car that Brian drove was handpicked by Paul Walker. As wild a fact as that is, even more interesting is that the first car that he drove in 2 Fast 2 Furious, was his own car. There is no doubt that when it came to cars, Paul Walker was the real deal, which is one of the many reasons his death was so tragic. He was not just an actor playing a role; the lifestyle in these movies meant something to him personally as well.

12.Michelle Rodriguez Almost Quit

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While it may be impossible to think of these movies without Michelle starring in them, that almost happened when she found out the writers wanted her to cheat on Diesel’s character. “It was more of a Point Break idea,” Rodriguez told The Daily Beast: “They just followed the format without thinking about the reality of it. Is it realistic for a Latin girl who’s with the alpha-est of the alpha males to cheat on him with the cute boy? I had to put my foot down. I basically cried and said, I’m going to quit and, ‘Don’t sue me, please — I’m sorry, but I can’t do this in front of millions of people.’” Thanks to Michelle standing up for her character, she continued to play a role that made her millions and millions of dollars. Sometimes it pays to stand up for what you think is right.

11.8 Is On Its Way

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Number 8 in The Fast and The Furious franchise is on its way, and no one is happier about that than Vin Diesel. “We were giddy and excited. You all gave me so much confidence. There was so much love,” he said in Variety. “You’ve been so loyal all along. You helped us create history here.” They have a lot to live up to as Furious 7 is the seventh highest-grossing film of all time, raking in $1.7 billion worldwide. I don’t know if you noticed that whole “billion” thing, but let’s just say these films make a ton of money. Sadly, 7 was also the last movie that Paul Walker appeared in, because of his tragic death. It will be up to Diesel and his other high octane costars to carry the load, and the franchise, on their shoulders.

10.Ever Notice The First One Is A Bit Like Point Break?

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Now this is not a knock on The Fast and the Furious;a lot of people in Hollywood tend to borrow from the plots of other movies. But with that said, it is pretty obvious that the original Fast and the Furious had a plot that was pretty much totally borrowed from Point Break, which was a cult classic starring Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze about a gang of bank-robbing surfers that was being pursued by an FBI agent. If you have not seen it, Point Break is one of those movies that you can watch over and over again and is known for its action sequences, just like The Fast and The Furious, so at least they picked a good movie to rip off. Not only that, but hey, writing plot is for sissies. The Fast and The Furious is all about action.

9.Paul Walker’s Brothers Were His Body Doubles

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Paul Walker’s tragic death truly rocked the whole Fast and the Furious franchise. His brothers Cody and Caleb offered to step in as body doubles to help complete the film. Obviously they could have found someone else to do it that looked like Paul, but it would have been a lot more creepy. The experience that Cody had on the film made him want to follow his brother’s path and become an actor- he is appearing in USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage, which is set to come out this fall. While it certainly must have been difficult for the two brothers to stand in for their fallen brother, most observers look at what they did as an act of tribute and respect, both to their brother, and to the movies that made him such a huge star.

8.Some Of The Cars They Use Fetch A Lot Of Money In Private Sales

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One of the R34 Nissan Skyline GT-Rs that was built for the 2009 film has been for sale numerous times. According to this article “The GT-R features an RB26 six-cylinder twin-turbocharged engine that can reach 550 horsepower. According to the seller’s listing, the Skyline has traveled 6,000 kilometers or 3,728 miles. The seller, Classic Trader, says the car has a 40-page appraisal document detailing the vehicle’s history.fAn exact price tag for this Fast and Furious keepsake is not listed on Classic Trader’s website, but the seller claims the car’s appraised value falls between 750,000 and 5,000,000 euros. In U.S. dollars, that’s between $844,000 and $5,496,000. The seller will only reveal the price to serious buyers.” Guess so.

7.Vin Diesel Got Involved So He Could Make Another Riddick Movie

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Don’t ever count out Vin Diesel; he is not only a huge star, the guy is also one very smooth operator. To catch you up, first he bailed on 2 Fast 2 Furious, and Universal really wanted him to do a small part in Tokyo Drift. Diesel said he would do it if they gave him the rights to the Riddick franchise, which he really wanted to do another movie for, even though the previous one had not made a lot of money. So he got to do another Riddick movie, and not only that but he became a regular in all the Fast & Furious films, which has increased his star power, not to mention his bank account. Sometimes the smallest little decision can have a lot of consequences. Never let it be said that Vin Diesel is not a good negotiator.

6.Jason Statham Was Originally Going To Be The Bad Guy In Furious 6

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Sometimes things have to be worked out on the fly, even in a big budget Hollywood production. The bad guy that was played by Luke Evans in Fast and Furious 6 was originally going to be played by Jason Statham. Lin then thought it might be better to have him appear at the end of the credits and tease the next movie, so Evans played the role instead. Statham has been playing bad guys for a while now, and is best known for his roles in the Guy Ritchie crime films Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, as well as the Transporter franchise . If you have not seen them, give them a look, they are not only excellent movies but they also give you an idea of how much Lin wanted him for the role in Fast and The Furious 7.

5.Dwayne Johnson Got A Role Because Of A FaceBook Comment

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If you were wondering how Dwayne Johnson, AKA The Rock, wound up on The Fast and the Furious, the answer might surprise you a bit. The character he played, who is named Agent Hobbs, was going to be played by a different actor, no one was thinking about Johnson at all, but when Justin Lin and Diesel saw someone talking on Facebook about how awesome it would be to see Diesel and the Rock going at it the plan was set in motion. They changed the part around and offered the role to Johnson. So, while it is more fun to think that all of these things are totally planned out, sometimes it takes as something as simple as a Facebook comment to get things going in a much different direction.

4.Michelle Rodriguez Found Out Her Character Was Alive In A Theater

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You might have thought that you were surprised when you saw that Letty, played by Michelle Rodriguez, was still alive, but imagine how surprised you would have been if you were Michelle herself? She has said that Vin Diesel, who is a producer for the films, did not tell her that her character’s grainy photo would be the parting shot of Fast Five. “They wanted to surprise me,” said Rodriguez.” “I didn’t find out until I actually went to the theater and saw it myself. I imagine that must have been a bit of a nice surprise, sort of like finding a few million dollars at the bottom of your bucket of popcorn. Fans were happy of course, Michelle is truly one of the things that makes The Fast and The Furious franchise as good as it is.

3.There Were Two Different Scripts Written for 2 Fast 2 Furious

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Any true fan of the franchise knows that 2 Fast 2 Furious introduced Roman Pierce, who was played by Tyrese Gibson. That was not the way it was originally planned. The first script had Dom and Brian working together against a high-powered drug lord. But when Vin Diesel looked like he would not be around for filming, at least on time anyway, they rewrote the script and brought in Roman. When you think about how much things may have changed, not just for that movie, but for all the movies to follow if they had followed the original script, it is mind blowing. Hey, I guess when you have a budget to work with like these guys do, then you can afford to put things together on the fly.

2.Michelle Rodriguez Learned To Drive On Set

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As amazing as it may seem, Michelle had never learned to drive before she got the role for the first The Fast and The Furious movie. According to her, that kind of set her up for some bad driving habits. She told Entertainment Tonight “I got such a bad record with speeding ’cause I got my license for Fast and Furious. After 11 points on your license, you’re like, ‘Yo, where’s that Prius at?’” Michelle is such a natural behind the wheel, and behind the camera for that matter, that it seems like she has been driving forever. It must have been wild to learn to drive on a set like that with so many amazing cars, and amazing drivers on set as well. I do not want to speak for Michelle but that sounds a tad intimidating.

1.Jordana Brewster Had Never Driven, Either

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While it seems kind of amazing that not one, but two stars that were picked to be in a movie about cars did not know how to drive, that is exactly what happened. Jordana Brewster not knowing how to drive meant that she had to get her license to star in the first The Fast and The Furious, or risk losing her starring role because of insurance reasons. So she basically had to learn how to drive while handling the harsh reality of New York City traffic, and she also had only one chance to pass the test, or she would have lost the role. Obviously she passed it with flying colors and the rest is history. It does make you wonder though, did the producers really not think of asking the question “Hey do you know how to drive?” before they cast these roles?